Recent Viewing Part IV

Johann Heinrich Voß, right?

It's concidered one of the most iminent works of translation within German literature. Voß' "Ilias" ranks with Luther's translation of the Bible and the Shakespeare translation of August Wilhelm Schlegel & Dorothea Tiek.

He lived in Jena for some years, which is near Weimar. There he befriended Goethe and Schiller. I love this period!

V.

Weimar ... the Athens of Germany.

About 1800 Weimar was almost twice a as big as Jena. (9000 / 5000) That would change only when the industrialisation came about.

Weimar was the residence back then. It was the capital of Saxony-Weimar, one of the many misicule German states. In Jena there was the university of the dutchy. The Duke invested much more money in his university and the urban infrastructure of Jena then in his residence in Weimar. Sadly that didn't catch on later.

It works SO much better in the original Klingon.

You task me. You task me and I shall have you.

It´s a trap!

I know - isn't it wonderful?

Use the giant red hard cover single volume edition of the "Ring". It'll probably work.

Are you mad? Smeagol loves his red hard cover single volume edition. Smeagol will never throw something this precious. Do it. Do it. Gollum. Gollum. Smeagol will use his replica of Anduril instead. Yes. Smeagol will hit them with the pointy end, that´s what Smeagol does. Agree? Agree? Gollum. Gollum.

My vote goes to Poland and that girl with the bucket and stick.

12 Years a Slave

Meh. The movie isn't bad, but I expected more, so am a little disappointed.

Rating: 7


Brief encounter

The first two thirds of the movie was ok though it didn't really get to me, but the last third was incredibly emotional and I almost broke down in tears. Such a well-made and affecting movie and Rach's 2nd piano concerto works wonders. A fine example of how well classical music can work in movies.

Rating: 9


Nymphomaniac, vol. 1

I expected to like it, but found it incredibly slow and boring. Some scenes were visually stunning, but the slowness killed it for me.

Rating: 3


Midnight cowboy

Good performances from Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman. Found it a bit boring though. Nice music, in particular Barry's main theme and that Harry Nilsson song.

Rating: 6


Dogville

Interesting, but sloooooow and the characters talked so quietly throughout the movie that I could barely hear them, even with the volume turned all the way up. I guess I'm not a fan of Lars Von Trier. Of his stuff, I only really liked Riget (The Kingdom) and I thought Melancholia and Antichrist had a few enjoyable moments.

Rating: 5


Falling skies

Just watched all three seasons. It started out ok-ish, but I got more into it later on and am looking forward to the 4th season. It's far from flawless though. The characters are caricatures and the acting ranges from good to atrocious. Child actors nearly always ruin it for me, as they very rarely know how to act, and this series has several kids having to act beyond their abilities. The writing isn't always brilliant, with some illogical stuff here and there and it is rather predictable at times. But somehow it still became quite addictive.

Rating: 7

Thor, yes, that would be a fair assumption. But I can be ok with slow movies if there's some payoff, or if the acting/visuals/atmosphere for some reason works for me. Even though Dogville was extremely slow, I found it kinda interesting and I didn't really feel that bored with it; but I would have enjoyed it more if it had been edited down to 2 hours. I will stay far away from Tarkovsky and Tarr, thank you.

Peter

I watched the first seven and a half minutes of Pain and Gain. I don't know why, really. I chose not to watch the rest.

Did you know that Vladimir Putin's all time favourite film is Priscilla, Queen of The Desert?

You should tell him that, he'll be well impressed.